Former model Natasha Prince has accused magician David Blaine of raping her at his Chelsea mansion in 2004, the Daily Beast reports.
Scotland Yard told the Daily Beast that it is investigating Prince’s claims.
“Officers from the Met’s Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command are investigating an allegation of rape,” their statement said. “The allegation was reported to police on 17 November 2016 by a woman who alleged she was raped at an address in Chelsea in June or July 2004 when she was aged 21. There have been no arrests at this stage and enquiries continue.”
Blaine’s attorney Marty Singer denied Prince’s accusation in a statement given to TheWrap:
“My client vehemently denies that he raped or sexually assaulted any woman, ever, and he specifically denies raping a woman in 2004,” Singer said. “If, in fact, there is any police investigation, my client will fully cooperate because he has nothing to hide.”
Prince is now a Manhattan art dealer, but worked as a model years ago. She told the Daily Beast that in 2004 she met up with Blaine at his Chelsea mansion after meeting earlier at a nightclub.
Here is what Prince told The Daily Beast happened next: “At some point, I was on the bed, face-forward, and he was behind me. … I was limp, and I was very floaty; I was in and out of a deep sleep.”
Prince said the assault eventually caused her to end her modeling career. “After this happened, I didn’t want to go out, and I didn’t want to go to my castings,” she said. “I wouldn’t get the job because now I was insecure.”
She told The Daily Beast it took her so many years to come forward because she “blamed herself.” She filed a report last year at Kensington Police Station, according to The Daily Beast’s report.
“You have to understand, my interpretation was that it was my fault. I didn’t think of it as rape. In my head, rape was being sober — pull her in a bush, pull down her pants and just ditch her… So I blamed myself. I did like him. I was interested in him. So I didn’t think about going to the police.”
Prince told The Daily Beast she is now going public with the hopes to “expose” Blaine. “I want him to know that I’m not stupid, and I know what happened,” she said.
Update: According to a 2020 report in the U.K. paper The Sun, detectives from Scotland Yard interviewed Blaine about the accusations but decided not to pursue a criminal case or charge him with a crime.
For the record: This post has been updated on June 1, 2022 to note that British authorities did not charge Blaine with a crime. In addition, at Prince’s request, a graphic detail from her accusation has also been removed.